


this close-companioned inarticulate hour

by cappers



Category: Free!
Genre: Australia, Gen, M/M, post-episode 13
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 06:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2377856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cappers/pseuds/cappers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He swims, much of the day, and calls home at night. </p><p>Rin is better at keeping in touch this time round.</p><p>[Character tags will be updated accordingly.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	this close-companioned inarticulate hour

**Author's Note:**

> Title is taken from Silent Noon by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  
> Un-beta'd.

Rin’s managed to develop something of a routine by now.

He goes to his classes, all in the morning and four days a week, jogging before and swimming after. He spends Thursdays, his one weekday off, at the North Sydney Olympic Pool and sometimes, when he remembers that time he’d brought Haru to the park around the corner, when Haru had said he’d found his dream, with bright eyes and an open heart and a smile on his face, Rin kicks the water and swims just that much harder. He’s taken to alternating between beaches on the weekends – Manly and Bondi, Collaroy and Coogee, Dee Why and Freshwater – now that winter is slowly but surely drifting into spring. 

‘It’s warming up’, Lori tells him at the weekly dinner he makes sure to have at his homestay family’s place, as she heaps another serving of the grilled mackerel that has now become a staple in this household onto his plate, ‘but be sure to watch your health, okay? It’s easy to catch colds this time of the year.’

Rin nods, thinking of how it is autumn in Japan, and leans down to rub Winnie, who’s been nudging her head at his foot for the past two minutes. He remembers a blond boy who once did the same to get him to try and win a toy in a UFO catcher. 

He resolves to call Nagisa that night. 

* * *

It turns out he is beaten to the punch. 

‘Quiz me, Rin-chan!’ Nagisa yells, and Rin almost yanks off his headphones at the sheer volume. He’s not quite sure when his ears will recover.

He sees, on his screen, Nagisa steadying the textbook in front of him before resuming.

‘Before John began his driver-training course,’ he starts, eyes trained on the passage, and misses Rin grinning at the increased fluency of his English, ‘he read the handbook provided by the Department of Motor Vehicles to – blank – himself with the traffic laws. One – institute! Two – familiarize! Three – disarm! Four – embrace!’ 

‘So, which is it?’

‘Two?’

Rin gives a little clap, and then, like the stern teacher he is – ‘Now spell it out.’ 

‘F-A-M-I-L-I-A-R-I-Z-E,’ Nagisa recites, and pauses, ‘or: R-I-S-E.’ Winking, he adds, ‘Just for you, Rin-chan.’

 ‘Your textbook is too American,’ Rin mutters dryly – it’s a topic they’ve gone over many times before, starting back when Nagisa had asked Rin to look at one of his English compositions to correct his grammar and spelling, and Rin had, to Nagisa’s confusion, absentmindedly added a ‘u’ to ‘flavour’.

(Trust Nagisa to write about food, Rin had been thinking.)

‘You know, the other day, after my presentation!’ Nagisa begins, bouncing in his seat. ‘My English teacher asked me to stay behind after class, and he told me that my English was getting a lot better! Also!’ And here, he stills. ‘He said something else. Can you guess?’

‘That your marks are almost at the top of the class now?’ Rin wouldn’t be surprised. 

‘Oh yeah, that too!’ Nagisa beams, but when he speaks again, his voice is a little softer. ‘He said that I’ve been sounding different lately. Not _wrong_ different, but just. I haven’t been trying to pronounce the r’s at the end of words, like everyone else, apparently, and that my tone rises at the end of my sentences so everything I say sounds like a question. That, to him, the rhythm of my English stands out.’

It hits Rin then, what Nagisa is trying to say, but he doesn’t stop there.

‘He said that the way I talk in English reminded him of some of the Australian exchange students he’d met on his study abroad in America, back when he was in college. “But only a bit, mind you – you still sound very Japanese” he’d added, strict as always,’ Nagisa chuckles as he lowers his voice to imitate his teacher, but he can’t quite hide the way it catches.

Rin opens his mouth, but is interrupted by –

‘I was worried, Rin-chan.’ Nagisa stares down at his keyboard, resolutely not meeting Rin’s eyes. ‘When Haru-chan and Mako-chan and you and everyone was graduating and leaving and – I mean, I have Rei-chan, and there are new members in the club now but – I thought we would all go our separate ways again, and you left to go to Australia again, when we’d only just gotten you back, and – and I’d spent half of middle school wanting us all to swim together again, and now – Haru-chan had said we were connected, forever, of course, I know that, but still – I just…’ 

 _Don’t be silly_ , Rin wants to say, but he knows, from experience, when to let someone vent.

‘It made me feel better,’ Nagisa confesses, quietly, and this is when he chooses to look up. ‘That I had this in common with you. That even when we’re all separated, there are things like this that link us together.’

‘Nagisa,’ and Rin can’t quite keep the fondness out of his voice, nor the tears out of his eyes, ‘just because we’re not all together doesn’t mean… well. I would know, wouldn’t I?' 

‘Rin-rin, are you crying?’ Nagisa teases, the brightness back in his face and his words, leaning closer to the screen while Rin leans back accordingly, forgetting for a moment that they were not holding this conversation in person.

‘Shut up,’ Rin mutters gruffly, but he doesn’t move to wipe the corner of his eyes. ‘Let’s go on to the next question.’

‘It’s okay,’ Nagisa brushes off the change in topic, ‘I don’t actually have a test tomorrow. I just wanted to call you. To tell you that.’ He flops his head onto his desk, landing almost out of the camera’s – and by extension, Rin’s – line of vision. ‘Everyone’s so busy these days. Mako-chan said even he and Haru-chan only have time to meet up weekly, at most.’

‘You and Haru-chan are training so hard,’ Rin hears Nagisa murmur through his headphones, and understands the meaning beyond, ‘to enter that world.’ 

There is silence for a moment, as Rin considers his words.

‘You can always call me,’ Rin promises, firmly, gently. ‘I will always make time for you if you need me. So will Makoto and Haru, you know.’

He knows he has said the right thing when Nagisa’s head pops back up onto the screen.

‘I would like to…’ Nagisa begins, in English, his eyes glancing down at the textbook from earlier lying askew across his keyboard, almost forgotten. The warm light of his desk lamp illuminates his face. ‘Four – embrace. You,’ he finishes with a flourish, giving Rin a toothy grin. 

And to that, Rin smiles back. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The question Nagisa recites is question 20 of the Grade Pre-1 EIKEN test from their 2014 Summer Session, a Japanese English proficiency test. It's funny how these things can fit sometimes, isn't it?
> 
> This was written because I'm salty about how Nagisa's anxiety over his friends leaving was left to literally the last ten minutes of the season, and also because Iwatobi was doing all these Rin things without Rin. This story will probably consist of me trying to rectify other things I'm pressed about through Skype conversations with Rin.


End file.
